With a young roster this year, the Emmaus girls volleyball team doesn’t have much playoff experience in its starting lineup, and maybe that showed in the first game of an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference quarterfinal match up last Tuesday night at Liberty.

The Hurricanes controlled game one and took the next one before the Green Hornets bounced back to force a fourth game. But second-seeded Liberty held on to beat seventh-seeded Emmaus 3-1 by scores of 25-14, 25-19, 17-25, and 25-22 to advance to the semifinals of the league tournament.

After a somewhat lopsided game one, the Green Hornets bounced back quickly and performed to the level they are accustomed to playing.

“It was our errors, and we didn’t communicate well,” said head coach Gwen Millets. “We kind of looked flat, and we talked about that in our huddles. We told them to get excited and have some fun. And that’s what we wanted them to do in the next couple of sets. Minimize errors and talk more.”

The Green Hornets were able to heed the word of their coach and started making strides during the next game. So much so that they held a lead for half of game two until the Hurricanes held a 15-14 edge. It was back-and-forth for the next couple of points, and after the Green Hornets trailed 18-17, Liberty scored seven of the next nine to take game two.

Emmaus led by as much as nine in game three and was clicking on all cylinders as they forced a fourth game.

“The girls played a lot better and really made me proud,” said Millets. “They did what we asked of them and it showed. They weren’t down or dropping their heads after losing the first two games. They went out and knew they were still alive and wanted to win the next three.”

Game four was close throughout, but Liberty did just enough to fend of the Green Hornets by three points.

While they weren’t able to win the next two games, they weren’t swept and could take away some momentum into the district tournament, which begins this week.

“I told them the season isn’t over yet,” added Millets. “They want to keep playing, and I want to keep coaching them. We’ll work on some things at practice and get better for next week.”

Megan Forstburg tallied 13 kills, 12 digs, 4 blocks. Alyson Bohman and Georgia Traynor each had 6 kills, and Abigail Moore totaled 14 digs. Caroline Bond contributed 28 assists and 13 digs.

Emmaus (11-7) earned the No. 4 seed in District 11 Class AAA and hosts No. 5 seed Pleasant Valley Thursday at 6 p.m.

Liberty went on to lose in the EPC title game Saturday to defending league, district and state champ Parkland. The Trojans earn the top seed in districts.